This afternoon, the Mets missed out on sweeping the Phillies by getting thoroughly deated 5-1 at Citi Field. The team, which had scored 39 runs since their off day on Monday, looked absolutely lost at the plate, and wasted a fine start from Robert Gsellman.
Gsellman was looking great through the first six innings, striking out five, walking one, and giving up one run in his major league debut. In the top of the seventh, Gsellman gave up three straight singles and departed the game with no outs and the bases loaded.
Hansel Robles relieved him and, well, didn’t provide much relief. He gave up a double to the recently acquired AJ Ellis, which scored two, then intentionally walked Freddy Galvis, and promptly hit Peter Bourjos, letting a third run score. Jerry Blevins then entered, and gave up a sacrifice fly to Cesar Hernandez.
The offense, which has been rolling lately, looked like it was June all over again, leaving eight men on base and only plating one run on a Curtis Granderson sacrifice fly in the first inning. The lineup was missing both Yoenis Cespedes and Neil Walker, who were given days off to rest lingering maladies, and lost Asdrubal Cabrera in the first inning, when he banged into Phillies starter Vince Velasquez and re-injured his left knee. The team has not announced the seriousness of Cabrera’s injury.
If we’re searching for some good news from the game, it is that both Josh Smoker and Jim Henderson looked good in back to back games, and that is a good thing for the Mets’ bullpen.
With the loss today, along with the Cardinals and Marlins losing, the Mets are currently three games back in the second Wild Card hunt, and are going into a four game series with the Marlins that could wind up being quite important for the race. Tomorrow, Rafael Montero starts in place of the skipped Jacob deGrom against Jose Fernandez. Let’s hope that match-up goes better than it looks on paper.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
Win Probability Added
Big winners: None
Big losers: Hansel Robles (-25.1% WPA), Jose Reyes (-12.5% WPA)
Teh aw3s0mest play: The 1-3-2 double play in the top of the third inning (+11.4 WPA)
Teh sux0rest play: Two-run double by AJ Ellis in the seventh inning (-15.7% WPA)
Total pitcher WPA: -25.1% WPA
Total batter WPA: -24.9% WPA
GWRBI!: A.J. Ellis